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A Shin of Beef Soup

A hearty soup made with a beef shin, cabbage, turnips, carrots, onions, and optional raised dough.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

A Shin of Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Boil the shin of beef in 5 to 6 quarts of water for 5 to 6 hours.

  2. Skim the broth often.

Add the vegetables and finish

  1. Add the chopped cabbage, turnips, carrots, and onions to the pot.

  2. Season with pepper and salt, and boil for 2 hours.

  3. Remove the bone and gristle half an hour before serving.

  4. If using raised dough, form a dozen small balls the size of a nutmeg and drop them into the soup.

  5. Boil for an additional 30 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Cabbage + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef shin
Slow boiling releases collagen and flavour into the broth, giving the soup body and richness.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a mild sweetness as it softens in the simmering broth.
Turnips
Hold their shape through long boiling and add a mildly sweet, earthy flavour.
Carrots
Soften during simmering, adding natural sweetness that balances the savoury broth.
Onions
Dissolve partly into the broth during long cooking, adding depth and sweetness.

The step that matters

Skim the broth often. Foam and fat rising during long boiling can cloud the broth and taste greasy. Regular skimming keeps the soup clear and clean-flavoured.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, cabbage, turnip, carrot, pepper):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, cabbage, turnip, carrot, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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